[MD] Consciousness & Moq.

[David Thomas]

DMB,

> One of the thing I discovered in the process of researching James is that his
> ideas are still very much alive. It would even be safe to say that he's just
> now being fully appreciated. Taylor and Wozniak, for example, have compiled
> the commentary on the two main essays in radical empiricism and their
> conclusion is that the record show a century of misunderstanding.

Given our recent, and for all I know continuing, "deconstructionist" era I
am leery of people claiming we don't know what James meant. James is one of
the clearest writers of philosophy I've ever read. One may disagree with his
ideas but to says we misunderstand what he said, that we need "Biblical"
interpreters parse out the meaning sounds fish-y (not Stanley) to me.

> My point?
> 
> The idea that James's or Pirsig's ideas are antiquated would dissolve the
> moment you looked into it. With google scholar, it would probably take less
> than an hour to find out for yourself.

My point?

It quite clear that Pirsig embraced James. The case could be made that
without James the MoQ would be completely unworkable.

The bigger and more important question is, Would James embrace Pirsig?

Pirsig claims there is one and only one foundational stuff in the universe,
Quality. And it is neither thought nor thing but some third (or actually all
kinds) kind of stuff. Mystical stuff, in the philosophical sense in that it
is ultimately unknowable and indefinable. Everything from quarks to Quixote
is a manifestation of this ultimately unknowable and indefinable stuff.

Is not this stuff the holy grail that reductionists everywhere seek?

As Krimel has pointed out James was a bottom-up, not a top-down guy.
Whole bunches of different stuffs conjoin to build other stuffs. Not one
stuff makes all stuff.

He further claims that all need for "faith" is stricken from his system.
Please explain to me how this, ultimately unknowable and indefinable
quality, does not require just as much faith as belief in any God. I'm not
saying that it might not be a good thing to do, just you must have James'
"will to believe" and ultimately this boils down to faith.

Dave

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